The Complete Guide to Cooking BBQ at Home

Without smoke, fire, and wood, emulating your favorite pitmaster is a long shot. Here, two BBQ pros explain how to re-create praise-worthy indoor renditions—but just make sure you don't say the word "authentic."

The problem? “You lose the specific interaction between the smoke and the meat that causes things like the smoke ring and the sugar cookie—the specific flavor created by the interaction of smoke, meat, and fat at the bark that tastes almost sweet,” says Hugh Mangum of Mighty Quinn’s.

It’s true. Indoor renditions of brisket, pork butt, and ribs aren’t the same as their smoke-tinged, outdoor counterparts. But even if all you’ve got is an apartment oven, there’s knowledge you can borrow from the pros to make indoor barbecue-style meat that’s worth eating—from the cuts of meat to target, to the ultra low heat used to render fat and tenderize the collagen.

Just don’t call it authentic, says Jean-Paul Bourgeois of Blue Smoke, who spoke to us while on a barbecue-tasting road trip in the middle of Hill Country, Texas. “It’s treason to say that authentic barbecue is cooked with anything but real wood,” he said.

Still, we convinced Mangum and Bourgeois to help navigate this tricky and oft-maligned wood-less genre of meat cooking—and to come up with at least one upside of taking the ‘cue indoors.

“You won’t get as dirty or smell like a campfire,” Mangum says, which is “good or bad depending on how you look at it.”

Here is the complete guide to cooking barbecue at home.

Meat

Image via Cara Eisenpress

Big cuts of brisket and pork need a really long time to cook. On the one hand, this is an advantage. These cuts have plenty of fats, which practically baste the meat as it cooks, preserving both moisture and flavor without much intervention from the cook. (Be sure to purchase good quality meat with its fat cap intact, and follow the tips below about keeping the oven humid.) On the other hand, you might not want to keep your oven on for 12 to 18 hours at a spell, especially if you plan to leave the house.

Mangum suggests cooking chicken, either in a grill pan or on a small stove-top smoker, while Bourgeois likes indoor spare ribs, which can become tender in a shorter time span. “It has a lot of inter-muscular fat, so it’s more forgiving, harder to dry out,” says Bourgeois. Or, think even further outside the barbecue box. “You’re cooking non-typical barbecue,” he says, “so don’t be afraid to use non-typical meats.” Lamb ribs, quail, and even fish are on that list.

Rub

Image via Cara Eisenpress

To make up for lack of smoke, you’re going to coat your protein with tons of spices before cooking it. Reach for blends with smoky flavors, like smoked paprika or smoked salt, says Mangum. Bourgeois agrees, and recommends looking for a high-quality bottle of pimentón—smoked paprika’s other name—that’s imported from Spain. He also recommends trying smoked cumin and using only fresh spices—nothing that’s been in your cabinet for years. Whatever flavors you choose, don’t skimp: “Go big with the rub,” says Mangum. “Don’t be bashful. Season, season, and season some more.” For a couple pounds of meat, try a mix along the lines of: 1 tablespoon cumin (smoked or regular), 2 tablespoons smoked paprika, 1 tablespoon garlic granules, 1 tablespoon smoky chili powder (like ancho or chipotle), 2 tablespoons of salt, and 1 tablespoon of brown sugar. Tweak it to taste.

Set-up

Image via Cara Eisenpress

The arrangement can be straightforward—put the meat in the pan, then put the pan in the oven. Some faux-'cue experts like to put the meat on a rack set over a pan so that the hot air can circulate all around. Plus you can catch the drippings and use them to sauce the meat later. Use a deep pan, especially if you’re making pork butt, which releases a ton of fat.

If you’re intent on getting wood smoke, you can try your luck by rigging up a stovetop smoker. Put a layer of foil on the bottom of a pot, add some wood chips, and cover the chips with another layer of foil. Place your steamer basket on top, with the food you’d like to smoke. Cover the pot tightly, turn on the heat, and cook for a couple of minutes; keep the cover on for 10 more minutes after turning off the heat. This works for chicken pieces and fish, but it’s a long shot for the larger cuts. If you’re considering putting wood chips in the oven, reconsider. Home kitchens just don’t have the right ventilation, says Bourgeois: “I just don’t think you want to put that in your oven.”

Humidity

Image via Cara Eisenpress

“The cooking method for brisket is all about time and humidity,” says Mangum. To replicate the moist heat of barbecue, put a baking dish filled with water on the oven rack beside the meat. Some grillmasters wrap their meat in foil, which is a good way to prevent it from drying out. Mangum, on the other hand, says skip it: “We don't wrap on the pit…but it can be done after a few hours, it will just taste more like steamed meat.” Start your meat without foil, and check on it often. If you’re worried that it’s drying out before it’s tender, wrap the pan closely with foil. Maybe you’ll risk a little steaming, and you might kill your bark, but you’ll save your meat in the process.

Cooking

Image via Cara Eisenpress

To turn brisket, ribs, and pork butt into shreddable, silky meat, keep the oven on low, and cook very, very slowly. The oven temperature should be between 200°F and 225°F for best results; the convection setting can help heat circulate. Once you’ve put the meat in, there’s not much to do but wait.

Doneness

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Finished barbecued meat should be melt-in-your-mouth tender—that’s a more important clue about doneness than the oven’s timer. Even so, here are some general rules: ribs needs at least 6 hours; pork butt takes 8 to 12; and brisket might be in there for as long as 18 hours, or until the meat reaches at least 185°F, says Mangum. By the time it’s done, brisket should yield to the lightest pressure. If you cut into your meat and it’s still chewy, put it back in the oven.

Sauce

Image via Cara Eisenpress

When you’re eating great barbecue, sauce can be an afterthought—the flavor of the meat is so good there’s no reason to cover it in a ketchup-based concoction. But in the case of indoor “smoked meat,” sauce can serve a vital role in adding extra flavor. First, capture the sauce that comes out of your meat, either by putting a sheet pan beneath your rack or wrapping the meat in foil. “Catch all those drippings,” says Bourgeois: “Rub, fat, meat, and juices.” Then mix all that with vinegar, ketchup, brown sugar, and any spices. Cook it down, and use it to coat your meat. In fact, Mangum would go far as to pick a sauce-able item for indoor barbecue in the first place: “Generally things that are more sauce heavy, like pulled pork, do well because the sauce can make up for a lack of smoke,” he says.

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